Ianqui at The Oil Drum is talking about sacrifice. Liz is talking about sacrifice at Sustenance.

I posted my comment over at The Oil Drum and thought that it was worth a cross-post:

The current administration missed a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on the mass-patriotism post-911, and instill a sense of duty and sacrifice as it relates to the 'war on terra' our over consumption of oil. I think that GWB and others felt that their chief obligation to the nation was to "keep the economy moving forward," and ignored problems that were at the root of the confict that we are in. With every news conference, we have heard that there is such-and-such terror alert in the this big city, but by all means continue to go about your daily life. Let it have no affect on you (and your spending.) The messages coming out of Tony Blair after 7/7 were strikingly similar: If you change your lifestyle, then the terrorists have won.

While this is true that the terrorists goal is to disrupt the economies of their enemies, preaching over and over that we should be 'going about our business' and not 'changing anything in our daily lives, except being vigilant' (whatever the hell that means) The undelying message is frightening: If you make changes in your life, such as conserving energy to reduce our foreign oil addiction, and trying to influence others to do the same, it isn't "American" or "patriotic" to do so. That's letting the terrorists win. Rationing means we're losing the war, etc. Thoughts?

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